Bankrupt

When the American economy plunged into its worst financial crisis since the 1930's, photographer Phillip Toledano began taking pictures of recently abandoned offices, and the things people had left behind. “When I started shooting bankrupt offices, I found it to be more archeology than photography,” he explains, "There was something very strange about walking into a recently abandoned office. The heavy, Pompeii-like stillness, punctuated by the occasional sound of the air-conditioning, turning itself on. A coat-hanger waiting patiently for a coat. A limp happy-birthday balloon on the floor. A drawer stuffed with take-out menus. Everywhere, there were signs of life, interrupted."